I think if you had, they would have been like every other Kzin-Chanur-Ronso 7 foot tall lion beasts.

FWIW I had no problem understanding that the Da'kor could be considered fierce; sometimes the smallest critters are the scrappiest. I just wish at some point in the story there was some image that actually showed them being fiercesome, like an image from history, or even an imaginary exaggerated form, like "this is what mum told me so I'd behave."

I really enjoyed that story. And Phoenix Requiem is on my RSS feed like a biweekly drug :-) Recommending it every chance I get.